Monday, February 23, 2009

Not expecting mail today, I went to the box and found a surprise package from Dinged Corners. YAY.

I alluded to it in my Young Superstars post about Matt Williams that regardless of the steroid allegations against him, and though he may not be my favorite player, I've always liked him. For some reason he reminds me of someone I know, but I can't put my finger on who it is. As much of a Dodger fan as I was when I was little, I always kinda liked the Giants too, but hey, I'm not from California so I'm allowed to like both. Barry Bonds turned me away from the Giants, but that was ok.

While I've got the steroid issue on my mind... I don't condone it, and I can't really forgive it, but it was such a widespread problem in baseball, that at some point we as fans and the writers are going to have to stop and think. How are we supposed to treat this era of baseball? How can we compare the numbers from 1986 to 2003 with the period before and after? I think the first step is to really explain how big the problem was, and the decide whether or not it was actually cheating. If a player used a currently banned substance before it was banned was he cheating? If a substance wasn't banned, and was available to everyone, then there's no inherent advantage.

I'm not saying this because a player I like (and there are more than a few) has been accused of juicing. I say this because I love baseball and this is an issue that needs to be figured out sooner rather than later. Whatever the case, it was wrong and tarnished the game, but it's time to start the recovery process. Remember how many fans walked away after 1994? This has the potential to do a lot more damage, I think. But I'll move right along.

While we're on the subject of 1994, it was nice to see Ripken bring fans back in 1995 by breaking the streak, but I don't think baseball truly recovered until 2001. When the Diamondbacks made it to the World Series in 2001 my first thought was "good for Matt... now go beat the Yankees." And they did, and I was happy. The 2001 World Series will go down as one of the greatest ever, and probably the most exciting that I've ever seen.

The best part about this package is that Patricia and Lucy included a card I've always wanted, but never was able to pull from a pack.

Admit it, it doesn't get much cooler than that! I love the big head Score All Stars, and this one is one of my favorites.

Also included are two Topps Heritage Matts. First time I've ever seen Heritage, so I'm even more excited to see '09 Heritage now. Also, a 1993 Score. I never realized that I'd never seen a '93 Score before. I've got lots of 88 (naturally), very few 89 and 90, a LOT of 91 and 92, and a stack of 94. But, until today, not a single 93. I like the design a lot.

My thanks go out to Patricial and Lucy, and be sure to keep reading Dinged Corners (or if you don't already, go read it).